


Captain Canary Decorate the Tree

by pineappleyogurt (musicforlife101)



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Bickering, Captain Canary Secret Santa 2016, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, F/M, Family Fluff, Gen, Traditions, mentions of the Snart siblings' sad childhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-11 05:37:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8956546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicforlife101/pseuds/pineappleyogurt
Summary: Sara, with her family traditions, and Leonard, with his tradition of barely scraping through Christmas, spend their first Christmas as a couple in Central City. And they can't stop bickering over how to decorate the tree.Mick and Lisa are just along for the ride.Captain Canary Secret Santa fic for FreyReh





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FreyReh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreyReh/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. They belong to DC and the creative team of the Flarrowverse.
> 
> For FreyReh
> 
> Prompt: Sara and Leonard decorate the tree  
> Wants: arguing over “style” and “placement”, fluff, a Mick and/or Laurel cameo would be okay  
> Don't Want: other love interests, character death, OOC/crack
> 
> This isn't the fluffiest thing I've ever written, but they just enjoy bickering so much. And I couldn't quite find a natural way for Laurel to come in, though in my head she surprised them on Christmas Eve by turning up unannounced. (Cisco helped, cause he loves her.) And I could not conceive of a Christmas Leonard would spend without Lisa, so I threw her in here too.
> 
> Hope you enjoy FreyReh!!! And as NSync would say: Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

They had nagged and begged and pleaded and glared and threatened - the latter was mostly Sara - until Rip had finally agreed to drop everyone back home for the holidays. Stein had even gotten in on it, needling Rip until he caved. He dropped them at home with plenty of time to spare before Hanukkah and Christmas and he would pick them up again just after the new year.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to Star City?” Leonard asked Sara as they walked away from the Waverider. His arm casually bumped hers, but it was too public for him to feel comfortable taking her hand.

She smirked up at him. “Sounds like you’re trying to get rid of me, crook.”

“Never.” He sent her a tiny grin. Mick made a vague, grunting noise somewhere behind them. “But you might enjoy it more with your family. Lisa and I aren’t very traditional.”

Sara rolled her eyes and knocked her shoulder into his arm. “I don’t care.” He shot her a disbelieving look. “I’d rather spend Christmas with you.”

“Suit yourself.”

* * *

On previous shore leaves in the present, Sara and Leonard had spent time at his apartment in Central City. Rip - and Leonard’s slowly developing sense of legality - had mostly kept him from thieving his way across time. But he’d taken the initiative to invest well for his younger self and purchase a heritage building for a song during the Depression. He’d hired a property manager, set everything up in his grandfather’s name, and willed it to himself. It left him with a beautiful, secure apartment in his hometown, plenty of cash, and a place for Lisa if she needed it.

Of course, his clean, minimalist apartment had become home to more and more clutter and sharp objects since he and Sara had started dating. But it didn’t bother him. Usually.

Their first order of business was to clean and rearrange the living room so they could accommodate a tree. Once the space in front of the window was clear, they left for the tree lot. Mick and Lisa met them there. Of course. They had both taken an interest in Leonard and Sara’s ‘domestic’ life, such as it was. Only an arsonist-turned-legend and a thief with a gun that shot weaponized gold could imagine that domesticity included _that_ many knives.

“It needs to be a big tree,” Sara said. “When I was a kid, we always had a big tree. Not as big as the Queens’, but you know, big.” She gestured vaguely with her hands.

“When I was a kid we had one of those sad, little, Charlie Brown trees,” Lisa said.

Leonard shrugged. “They were free on Christmas Eve.”

“And one year we had that awful aluminum one, remember?” she asked. Leonard nodded once, mouth a firm line.

Sara wrapped her arm around his as they stepped into the trees. “Well, this year, we're getting the biggest tree we can.” She grinned brightly at Leonard. He was pretty sure this was one of those ‘yes dear’ moments, but agreeing without discussion was hit or miss with Sara.

Within a few minutes, they came to a massive tree that was at least 12 feet tall and almost six feet wide.

“This one,” Sara said, smiling. “It's big. It's shapely.”

Len studied it. “Sara, I don't think this one will fit in our living room. Let alone through the front door.”

“You're a master thief, Len. You can make it work,” she said. Mick snickered.

“I steal things, I can't rewrite the laws of physics.”

“Since when do you know anything about physics, Lenny?” Lisa teased.

He rolled his eyes. “Since I ended up on a time ship with the nerd twins and an uppity computer.” He turned to Sara and gestured for her to continue the hunt. She huffed and turned away. Then, off to her right, she saw it. The perfect tree. She turned fully toward it and pulled her boyfriend after her. Lisa and Mick followed, generally amused at their domesticity.

It really was a perfect tree. Taller than Len, but not taller than their ceilings. Just a little narrower than their front window, so there would be room for presents around it. Full and leafy and even.

“This one,” she said.

Lisa stepped up to it as well. “It's so pretty.”

It was settled then. Leonard paid for the tree, which was a Christmas miracle in and of itself, and Mick offered to carry it to the car. Sara had somehow convinced Stein to loan them his car for the evening, since they couldn't carry a tree on their bikes.

Leonard regarded the tree with a critical eye. “We should get it flocked.”

“Why? That stuff is kind of weird,” Sara said.

“It looks like snow.” The ‘I like snow’ was unspoken but very obvious.

Lisa smiled. “I've always wanted a flocked tree.” Mick just shrugged.

“I don't know,” Sara said.

“It’s flame retardant,” Len bargained.

“Let’s get it,” she said.

Len paid again for the flocking, but he insisted to Sara that he would just steal the cost back from Mick as fire insurance.

* * *

Two days later, after the flocking had dried and they picked it up from the tree lot, the four of them stood in Sara and Leonard’s living room, staring at the tree. Sara had convinced Cisco to loan them his car this time to bring it home. Len still wasn’t sure how she was managing it.

“I think it's leaning,” Sara said.

“You sure you're not leaning?” Len asked. She was right, the tree was listing slightly to the left. But he knew he was going to end up on the floor fixing the tree stand regardless of whether or not he agreed with her. And teasing her was more fun.

Sara rolled her eyes in tandem with Lisa. And wasn't that terrifying. “I'm sure. Are you going to fix it?”

“Yeah, I'm on it.” He got down on his belly and slid under the tree. With a little leverage, he used the tree stand to shift the angle. “Better?”

“A little more,” Sara said.

Mick grunted thoughtfully. “Why can't we put it in the corner by the fireplace again?”

“It's a fire hazard,” Len said, voice muffled by the tree, but no less long suffering.

Mick shrugged. “I think it'd look nice.”

“That's why you're not an interior decorator,” Len said. “Is that better?”

“Yeah, that looks great, Len.” He crawled out from under the tree. “Need a hand up, old man?” He shot her a withering glare. She just grinned impishly at him. He was absurdly fond of that grin, despite how often it was aimed at him.

Smiling back, he climbed to his feet. “Lights?”

Lisa dug into the first box of Christmas decorations they’d pulled out of the closet. Last shore leave, Sara had brought some decorations from home and they had combined her boxes with the little Leonard had kept from his past.

“We have white and multicolor,” she said, holding up two different strands of lights.

“White,” Sara said.

“Multicolor,” Leonard said at the same time. They looked at one another and he rolled his eyes. “Multicolor lights are more festive.”

“But the tree will look better with white lights. All lit up and snowy.”

“But white lights are boring and formal. Multicolor lights are better.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “You wanted a flocked tree. White lights look better with a flocked tree.”

He looked at the lights, then at the tree, then back to the lights, and back to the tree. “Fine.” He took the end of the lights out of Lisa’s hand and plugged them in. Thankfully, they lit with no dead spots, so they didn’t need to replace any bulbs. He reached up and nestled the end of the lights at the top of the tree. Then he started to tuck the strand in toward the trunk. After the lights were far enough down the trunk, Sara took one side and he took the other. When she reached the pass off point and he took the lights, she lifted the excess and flipped it over the top. He caught it in one hand and smiled through the branches at her.

Mick wandered in from the kitchen drinking a beer. “They make a decision?” Lisa nodded. He stopped to fiddle with the stereo and the local station that had been playing Christmas music since before Thanksgiving filtered quietly into the room. He plopped down onto the couch and took another long sip of beer. “We’re gonna be here all night, aren’t we?”

“Yep,” Lisa said, dropping down beside him. She plucked the beer bottle out of his hand and took a long drink, then gave it back.

Leonard plugged the lights back into the powerstrip and stepped back. The tree looked really nice with the white lights. Sara was right. Damn.

She turned a happy grin on him and he smiled back. “Time for ornaments,” she said, turning to dig into the boxes.

“I think it’d look nice with some candles,” Mick said. “They did that back in Victorian times, right?”

Len didn’t quite sigh. “Fire hazard, Mick,” Sara said absently. Then she looked up at him and Lisa sitting on the couch. “Are you guys gonna help?” Lisa shrugged and got up. Mick finished his beer before getting up to help dig through boxes. Sara handed baubles to each of them. Red to Mick, blue to Len, gold to Lisa, and a silvery white one for herself. Laurel had given it to her last time she was home to pick up decorations. “Now, make sure you decorate all the way around the tree.”

“What?” Len asked. “Why exactly are we doing that?”

“When I was a kid, we always had to decorate every side of the tree, even if it was against a wall.”

Leonard raised an eyebrow. “So now you’re forcing us to do it, too.”

“Tradition, crook,” she said with a smirk. He rolled his eyes in feigned annoyance.

Lisa looked at the ornament in her hand. “When we were kids, we didn’t have enough ornaments to decorate all the way around.” She shrugged. “Except that year I made a bunch of paper snowflakes out of Lenny’s old homework.” She grinned teasingly up at her brother. Something in his eyes softened.

Sara nudged her slightly. “Well, now we’ve got plenty of ornaments.” She glanced at the box. “And snowflakes too.”

Lisa grinned at her and hung her ornament just above the middle of the tree. Sara followed, hanging hers lower on the right side. Mick hung his farther down on Lisa’s other side. Len hung his closer to the top.

“Don’t put it there, Len. We need the top branches for the heavier ornaments,” Sara said.

“Heavier ornaments? How heavy can an ornament be?”

“Some of the ones I brought from home need sturdier branches.”

He unhooked the bauble and moved it farther down and toward the window. “Can I put it here, assassin?” he asked, smirking.

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be snarky, Snart. I know it physically pains you not to be, but try.” He chuckled. “Here, you can put this one up there.” She handed him a ceramic ornament with ‘Fröliche Weinachten 1980’ painted on the front in gold.

“Oh, that one’s pretty, where did you get it?” Lisa asked.

“West Berlin,” Leonard said. “1980.”

“Time travel, right. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that,” she said. She picked up a misshapen gingerbread man that looked like various pieces had been glued back on multiple times. Smiling slightly, she hung it.

“Don’t put that thing there, Lis,” Len said.

“What’s wrong with that spot?” Sara asked.

“It’s too visible. I did a piss poor job putting that thing back together every time Lewis threw it across the room.”

“Let your sister put it there if she wants.” Lisa stepped back beside Mick to watch.

“I thought you cared about the _style_ of the tree,” he deflected.

“I do. But it’s sweet that you fixed it for her over and over. If you still had those homework snowflakes, you could hang those, too.”

“Fine,” he said. Lisa handed him a bauble with a wide smile. He supposed it was karma that his girlfriend was just as much of a conniving younger sister as his own sister, and doubly so that they got along. He took the bauble with bad grace and hung it on the window side of the tree.

Sara pulled several snowflake ornaments out of the box, some plastic and some blown glass. She harbored a suspicion that Laurel hadn’t fought her for them because she knew Len would like them. The smile he tamped down as he took a glass snowflake the size of his hand from her was worth every one of Laurel’s knowing glances. Christmas really was Leonard’s holiday. Cold, icy, and Saint Nicholas was the patron saint of thieves. Well, _repentant_ thieves, which Len was not and would never be, but St. Nick would probably make an exception for such a heroic thief.

“How many adorable animal ornaments do you own?” Len asked, peering into the box a few minutes later.

“A lot,” Sara said with a shrug.

“Why?”

“I used to make my dad buy more every Christmas when I was little and Laurel made me take them last time I was in Star City.”

Leonard opened his mouth to reply. Something snarky, no doubt. “Shut up, Lenny, they’re cute,” Lisa said.

“Yeah, shut up, _Lenny_ ,” Sara said, dimpling up at him. He raised an eyebrow and she stuck her tongue out at him. He smiled when she hip checked him on her way past a moment later.

Leonard took another ornament. “Am I allowed to hang this on a low branch, assassin?” he asked with a cheeky smile, gesturing toward a relatively empty patch near the bottom branches.

“Seeing as we don’t have any pets or small children, yes.” He smirked at her.

They had hung more than half of the ornaments when Sara pulled out a glass bird in flight. She carefully hung it in an empty patch.

“I wouldn’t put that there,” Leonard said.

“Why? It needs an ornament and I like this one.”

He looked at it closer. “From your sister?”

Sara nodded. “She has the other one.”

“Then put it over here.” He gestured to a section of branches higher up and closer to the front. He tugged her closer to him and the open spot with a hand on her hip. “Lisa has an ornament that needs this tall space.”

“You’re arguing placement with me now?” she teased while she moved the ornament to the new branch.

He shrugged. “I’m arguing space limitations.” Lisa stepped over with a long, golden spiral set with something sparkly. Maybe diamonds or crystals. She hung it in the empty space, filling it perfectly. “See?”

“Is that real gold?” she asked.

“Of course,” Lisa said. “And Swarovski crystals. I lifted it from Tiffany’s when I was in Metropolis a couple of years ago.” She smiled.

“And she’s insisted on putting it up every year since,” Leonard said.

Sara almost laughed at his long suffering tone, as if he’d deny Lisa anything. “I think it’s great.” She turned back to the boxes and pulled two ornaments out. One was a green arrowhead and the other was a gold circle on a white background with a gold lightning bolt through it.

“No,” Leonard said. Sara grinned at him. “When Hell freezes over.”

“Come on, Len, they’re our friends.”

“You might be friends with Queen, but I am _not_ friends with Allen.”

“Oh really? What would call your relationship then?”

“He’s my nemesis.”

Sara snorted indelicately. “Yeah, and I really need to get you a dictionary for Christmas. In no way does your relationship fit that definition.”

“I’ve always thought they were more like frenemies,” Lisa offered.

“Not helping,” he said.

“I’m not trying to help _you_ ,” Lisa said.

“They are our friends and we are putting their ornaments on our tree,” Sara said.

“Mick? Help me out here.”

“You’re on your own boss.”

“Are you afraid of Sara?”

“Nope. Just respect that she could kill me.”

Leonard turned back to Sara. “I’m not winning this one am I?”

She shook her head. “Nope,” she said, popping the ‘p’. He took the Flash ornament from her and moved to hang it on the side of the tree so he didn’t have to stare at it all the time. She hung the Green Arrow ornament on the other side.

After a few more minutes, they had hung all the ornaments and the entire tree was decorated. Mick and Lisa went poking through the boxes. The former just looking and the latter trying to put things away. Mick opened a Christmas themed tin.

“What are these, Blondie?” he asked.

“Oh, just bows for the tree.”

“Bows?” Len asked.

“They’re red and they tie onto the tips of the branches.” His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to argue. “We’re not putting them up.”

“Good.”

“They wouldn’t look good with the flocking.” Leonard nodded warily. They were getting a flocked tree every year if he could swing it.

Lisa pulled both tree toppers out of the box:  an ice blue star that Leonard had found a few years ago, and an angel just like the one Sara’s family had put on their tree for years. Both plugged into the lights and lit up from within. Much as she longed for her childhood traditions, Sara wasn’t sure it was fitting to have an angel crowning a tree shared by thieves and an assassin. None of them were angels, even if they were on the side of them most days.

“You should put up your angel, Sara.”

“No, Len, you should put up the star.”

“But it’s your family tradition.”

“But the star would look better with the tree.”

Lisa looked over at Mick. “Are they really arguing for _each other’s_ side now?”

He shrugged. “I don’t listen to them bicker anymore. It’s like white noise.”

“Aren’t angels traditional?” Len argued.

“When have we ever been traditional?” Sara shot back. “Just put up the star, Leonard.”

“Fine.” He took the star from Lisa and stepped up next to the tree. She tucked the angel back into the box and dropped down onto the sofa with Mick, who took a long drink of his beer. The tree was only just taller than Len was, so he could reach up and settle the star onto the topmost branch. He tucked the star’s cord down the trunk and plugged it into the lights. “How does it look?”

Sara smiled and held her hand out to him. “Come see for yourself.” He took her hand and stepped back, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her middle, hands still clasped. The stereo in the corner started to play ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’. She hummed a little and pressed back into his chest.

“Looks nice,” he said, pressing a kiss to her crown and then settling his chin there.

“Yeah, it does,” Sara said. She looked up at Len with a cheeky smile. “Maybe we can invite Team Flash over.”

“No,” he said, but there was a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

She kissed the corner of his mouth. “Yes.” He hummed noncommittally and she smiled and tucked herself further into his chest.

**Author's Note:**

> So... some of these traditions are from my own family. The bows are a big one. And the decorating all the way around thing is something my grandma forced us to do. I didn't realize until I was a little older that it was because we had so many ornaments.
> 
> Thanks for reading!!


End file.
